A crazy end to a crazy week

There was a lot going on this week. I had a lot of carpool duties, my allergy shot, a professional development meeting at the same time as my kids’ dentist appointments (scheduling six months out never works!), and our regular martial arts training.

But Friday afternoon is when things got really crazy.

At the end of 5th period some of my students said they thought they heard shots. And then sirens. I had heard neither of these things, but when they looked across the hall and saw that all the classrooms in the upper elementary school were closed they started freaking out. I told them that the other school would not get info that we didn’t get, and those doors were probably closed for some other reason. But they were clearly upset, so I started closing my blinds and shutting and locking my doors to assuage their fears.

Then the secretary came on and told us not to change classes yet, to keep our 5th period in our classrooms.

At that point the students really started freaking out.

I shut the remaining blinds and covered the small window slits in the doors with paper. Mine is one of the only classrooms that faces the parking lot – almost every other classroom is behind gates on the main campus but our wing sticks out. This was a source of great stress for my students.

Finally our principal came on and said we were in shelter in place. “Shelter in place” means that students need to stay inside, but not even that doors need to be locked. “Shelter in place” is used for bad air quality and when a mountain lion is spotted. It is not the same as a “lock down,” which requires that doors be locked and barricaded and students huddle in spaces away from the windows.

Of course, since the students were sure they had heard shots, they were in a different head space. Some of them were very upset, others were fine. I put on a Nailed It! Mexico and let them take out their computers to play games – anything for them to manage their anxiety. As time wore on, the upset kids calmed down and eventually the goal became to pass the time. Some students, who had their phones, were announcing what they thought had happened, because their (insert-family-or-friend-here) was at (insert-area-near-us) right then and had the info.

Finally, right before our school day ends, they lifted the shelter in place order. We stayed with our 5th period students for the remainder of the school day, trying to keep them inside as helicopters circled the area.

Evidently there had been a shooting – or at least, shots were fired – right across the street from us, next to the high school. But no one was injured and they never found the person who had fired the shots.

The whole ordeal was stressful and exhausting – at least it happened on a Friday afternoon! I’m still processing my thoughts and feelings about it. I volunteered to assist on Fridays at the dojo so I was on the mat for 90 minutes that afternoon and by the time I got home I was totally done.

It feels weird to end this post here, but I’m going back to the dojo today to train, and I have to get ready. I’m sure I’ll be back here with some follow up thoughts. At this point all I got in me is a recap of what happened.